The present invention relates to an automated records management system. Such an automatic system has utility, for example, in a hospital based patient record keeping system. Patient record keeping systems are used for maintaining a wide variety of separate, often interrelated, types of medical records concerning patients.
Hand written patient record keeping systems have evolved through many years of careful refinement and enhancement into systems which maintain a detailed manual record of medical information concerning each patient. To meet the needs of different hospital entities (such as doctors, nurses, pharmacy, accounting, laboratory, etc.) a manual record keeping system would require that one bit of information be entered into multiple records.
In a typical manual patient record keeping system a patient chart, usually in the form of a notebook, is maintained at the nursing station for each patient. The notebook is divided into a plurality of individual tabbed sections, such as Physicians Orders, Kardex, Nursing Care Plan, Nursing Assessment, and Laboratory.
Each of the above sections is further subdivided into a number of forms. The forms are those which are appropriate to the individual patient and/or such patient's physician. For example, within the Laboratory section there may appear forms for chemistry, hematology, blood gas, and microbiology.
In addition, a "flowsheet" chart is usually kept at the patient's bedside. On the "flowsheet" chart there are individual areas for medications records, vital signs, intake/output, laboratory results, and other categories which are dependent upon the patient's affliction, such as intravenous (IV) drips.
The flowsheets are often a type of spreadsheet arranged by a progression of time versus a particular parameter. Each of the time/parameter intersections forms a cell.
Often, the information for one cell in a flowsheet will come from more than one object instance. Therefor, it is desirable to obtain the various pertinent information from object instances and have it displayed on one form. One or more of the fields from the form may then be displayed on a data cell. This is not available in current medical information systems.
Further, because changes/corrections may be made to the object instances via a form, it is necessary that a history of these changes/corrections be maintained. This is also not available in current medical information systems.
In addition, in order to maintain the efficiency of the information displayed in the data cells, it is desirable that only the most current information be displayed.
While only the most recent information is desired, it is necessary to indicate whether there have been changes in the data being displayed. If is also desirable to permit the user to view the information as it existed prior to being changed. These items are also not available in current medical information systems.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a spreadsheet cell which overcomes the above deficiencies.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method for displaying information from an information based computer system which consolidates information from various object instances onto a single form.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for displaying information from an information based computer system which maintains an historical record of changes/corrections to information in various data objects and forms.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method for displaying information from an information based computer system which displays the most currently available information.
yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method for displaying information from an information based computer system which permits the user to view the information as it existed prior to being changes.
These and other objects and advantages are achieved in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention described below.